British Airways: programme will feature "unprecedented access" to the airline

A Very British Airline was commissioned following the success of last year's Airport Live, a live broadcast from Heathrow over four nights in June 2013 that told the story of how the world's busiest airport is run.

According to the BBC, the documentary will be the most in-depth analysis of British Airways in 25 years and will explore every aspect of the airline, from board-level decisions about the future of the organisation to the training of new recruits and the daily operational challenges faced by some of its 40,000 staff.

A spokeswoman for British Airways said: "We're constantly being asked to do these sorts of things and we just felt the time was right following on from last summer's Airport Live, which was a very well-received look into how the busiest airport in the world works."

The three 60-minute episodes will air at 9pm on Mondays from 2 June to 16 June on BBC Two. The opening episode show how the airline, which has faced financial crisis in the past decade following the rise of budget airlines such as easyJet, tries to persuade people to spend more to fly.

Emma Willis, head of commissioning, documentaries for BBC One, Two and Four, said: "This three-part series will capture the immense complexities of a business that powers the nation and will offer a unique insight into British Airways' future."

Nick Catliff, managing director for production company Lion Television, added: "It took a long time to persuade BA to give us access. BA is a business of course but it's also an iconic British institution with a unique culture and history.

"This is just the right moment to be going to the heart of BA as it handles difficult transformational changes and introduces new planes, flies to new destinations, trains new staff and deals with everything from cyclones and bird strikes to demanding first-class passengers and fierce competition."